The Staples Boys Cross Country today team defended its 2016 Class LL championship with another dominant performance.
Staples runners in action today. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo
The team’s top five runners averaged 16:32 minutes over the hilly 5Km course at Wickham Park, Manchester, far ahead of second place Xavier, which averaged 16:58.
Staples was led by senior Will Landowne, who finished fifth in 16:12. Close behind in sixth and seventh were seniors Ben Seiple and Christian Myers in 16:19 and 16:21.
Sophomore Nick Taubenheim finished 17th in 16:54 and junior Ryan Smith was the last scoring finisher for Staples in 20th place in 16:57.
Morgan Fierro and Henry Haas were the sixth and seventh runners for the team and all seven recorded course personal records.
Staples went into the race ranked No. 2 in the state after an early season loss to Xavier on the same course, but Staples improved nearly 20 seconds on average from that early season race while Xavier was 20 seconds slower.
Now the team will prepare for the state open championships, where Xavier and third place Fairfield Warde will try to unseat Staples.
The top six teams from the open championships advance to the New England Championships the following week.
